Nuclear Video Matinee: Fukushima Health Effects in North America (?)

By ansnuclearcafe on May 02, 2014 03:57 pm

Studies by Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano purporting to link
radiation from Fukushima to health effects in the United States have
made for alarming headlines in news outlets on occasion, and have come
under fire by critics who charge flawed … Continue reading →Read in browser »

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office
of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development today
announced the award of a $25 million grant a consortium that includes
NSE for research and development (R&D) in nuclear arms control
verification technologies, including nuclear safeguards effectiveness.
The sizeable, long-term investment will support the consortium at $5
million per year for five years.
...morehttp://nnsa.energy.gov/mediaroom/pressreleases/consortium

New field of “strain engineering” could open up areas of materials research with many potential applications.

In the ongoing search for new materials for fuel cells,
batteries, photovoltaics, separation membranes, and electronic devices,
one newer approach involves applying and managing stresses within known
materials to give them dramatically different properties.
This development has been very exciting, says MIT
associate professor of nuclear science and engineering Bilge Yildiz, one
of the pioneers of this approach: “Traditionally, we make materials by
changing compositions and structures, but we are now recognizing that
strain is an additional parameter that we can change, instead of looking
for new compositions.”
Yildiz, who authored a recent Materials Research Society
Bulletin paper describing work in this field, explains that “even though
we are dealing with small amounts of strain” — displacing atoms within a
structure by only a few percent — “the effects can be exponential,” in
some cases improving key reaction rates by tenfold or more. ... morehttp://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/strain-can-alter-materials-properties

"This report presents the reflections of members of the MIT Nuclear
Science and Engineering faculty on the accident at Fukushima, and is
offered as a contribution to the debate on the implications of the
accident for the nuclear industry. Our purpose is twofold: we identify
and discuss technical issues arising from the accident; and we begin a
review of how the lessons learned can be used to improve the safety
of current and future plants. The information is organized in six
sections: “Emergency Power following Beyond-Design-Basis External
Events”, “Emergency Response to Beyond-Design-Basis External Events”,
“Containment”, “Hydrogen Management”, “Spent Fuel Pools”, “Plant Siting
and Site Layout”. For each area, we present key issues observed at
Fukushima and corrective actions that should be evaluated for
implementation in current and future plants". http://web.mit.edu/nse/news/2011/nse-fukushima-report.html

How it Works: The NRC’s Process for Licensing Uranium Recovery Sites

William Von Till
Chief, Uranium Recovery Licensing Branch
After years of thorough review, the NRC has issued a handful of licenses over the past several months for uranium recovery facilities
in the Western United States. We thought this would be a good
opportunity to explain all the work that goes into NRC approval of these
licenses.
First some context: like all commodities, the price of uranium rises
and falls based on a number of factors. About a decade ago, the price of
uranium began to rise, prompting mineral companies to begin looking
seriously at developing new uranium production facilities. Beginning
around 2006, these companies were contacting the NRC to better
understand our licensing process.
Generally, our work with an applicant begins years before we ever
receive an application. Any meetings we have with an applicant are open
to the public, whether before or after they apply. We ask interested
companies to let us know their plans ahead of time so we can budget
resources to conduct our reviews. And we are available to answer
questions on our regulations, the application process, environmental
reviews, or whatever other issues a potential applicant or the public
may want to discuss.
The first step on receiving a uranium recovery facility application
is for the NRC to conduct a thorough review to make sure the application
addresses all aspects of our regulations and is complete. Sometimes
these reviews find areas where an applicant needs to provide more
information. We do not “accept” an application for technical and
environmental review until we are satisfied the information we will need
is there.
Once the application is accepted, we invite interested parties to
participate in the licensing process. We provide details on how to find
the documents and offer a chance for them to ask for a hearing. We set a
proposed schedule for our review. We also begin the process of
reviewing the environmental impacts of the proposed facility. This
extensive process involves the public as well, providing opportunities
to weigh in on which environmental issues need to be addressed at any
given site.
The technical reviews for recently licensed facilities have taken
years. For example, the Dewey Burdock facility in South Dakota received
an NRC license April 8, about four and one-half years after we accepted
it for review. The application for the Ross facility in Wyoming, which
we licensed last week, took us about three years to review. How long our
review takes depends on several things—the quality of the application,
the amount of confirmatory work we need to do, and how long the
applicant takes to respond to our questions, just to name a few.
The environmental review proceeds in parallel but also involves a lot
of work. In addition, we must consider the impacts on cultural and
historic resources. These evaluations require us to consult with other
federal, state and tribal officials and the public—a time-consuming but
invaluable process that gives us the most complete picture possible of
the impacts a facility could have.
Only after these reviews are completed does the NRC issue a license.
All the documents associated with our technical and environmental
reviews are made available to the public through our documents database.
We are pleased that two of our multi-year licensing reviews came to a
close in April. We have seven additional uranium recovery applications
under review and may receive as many as 11 more this year.

Energy independence hinges on closing gas infrastructure gap

Without a solution to the significant gas pipeline infrastructure gap
that currently exists, the energy independence that the shale gas
revolution could provide may never be realized. That is according to a
new report from global law firm White & Case LLP.

Days before a self-imposed deadline, the Obama Administration again delayed its decision on the future of the Keystone XL pipeline
last week. It was a delay like previous delays, with the now-routine
explanations that more study was needed and that others (a Nebraska
court) must decide first.
Yet this time, the delay offered something more: a glimpse of an
administration that is losing control and, subsequently, relevance.
The Keystone XL pipeline project is nothing revolutionary in the
context of moving crude oil. It would extend 1,897 km from Hardisty,
Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, where other existing pipelines or
other means of oil transportation would then be capable of moving crude
oil to the Gulf Coast area or elsewhere in the U.S. Midwest. There has
been no evidence to suggest that the Keystone XL project would increase
carbon emissions, negatively impact the environment, or is somehow
unsafe; conclusions reached by the State Department’s own Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement report.
read morehttp://nationalinterest.org/commentary/keystone-xl-obama-the-politics-indecision-10375

GE in talks to buy AlstomGeneral
Electric (NYSE: GE) is in talks to buy Alstom and an agreement may be
announced as early as next week, according to a report from Bloomberg.
People with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg a potential
transaction may value Alstom at about $13 billion.Read MoreShare:

Alstom to accept $17 billion deal with GE

High-level waste arrives in Japan

23 April 2014

The fourth and largest shipment so far of high-level waste
from the UK to Japan has been completed. All such waste, resulting from
the reprocessing of used reactor fuel, should be returned from the UK to
Japan by the end of the decade.

A
little over two years ago we reported that utility-scale energy storage
could be “around the corner” thanks to flow-battery technology that
relies on a rare earth mineral called vanadium. That vision leapt closer
to reality last week. The New York State Energy Research and
Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced it will partner with energy
storage